I’m aware of the fact that a lot of talented people out there will never get this chance.

I’ve heard my share of Van Halen. I never liked rock.

If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I’m a musician first. I’m not limited by the fretboard.

Even in your darkest moments, you’ll think of something that’ll crack you up.

When I made ‘Who Needs Pictures,’ my first album, I had been west of the Mississippi River one time in my life, and that was in fourth grade. We traveled to California for vacation and...

Willie Nelson, out there 200 days a year, calls his band family. And it is.

If there’s a song where there’s a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don’t worry about what anybody thinks.

She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarett. She broke his heart. He spent his whole life trying to forget. We watched him drink his pain away a little at a...

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn’t so concerned with impressing anybody.

If you fall in love with somebody, then you’re not even worried about your bills. Love can take your mind off of anything.

When you’re a creative person, there are just times when you’re not listening. You know, I could be looking right at you and thinking about something else.

I don’t have, you know, an ‘overcoming addiction’ story, other than the guitar itself, and I haven’t overcome that. I don’t have a jail time, you know, story, or any arrests.

When I got married, I hired a great choir – the St. James Choir, an all-black gospel choir – to sing at my wedding.

Unless you’re a true prodigy, you’re going to have to practice for a while being bad before you get any good. And it will seem like a waste of time. I remember that feeling well....

My father’s a firefighter. He was my whole life. And my brother-in-law and several family members are firefighters.

It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It’s who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

If you’re really on top, you probably didn’t do that great, ’cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal.

I try to write like the writers I admire – I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that,...

I take his talent and his passion with me – to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the...

That there’s no more important decision in life than who you marry.

When they say you’re the best, I always remember that the majority of the audience probably thinks someone else should have gotten the award.

Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that’s ever lived. I’ve never heard anyone like her.

Even on the most serious ballads, I’ll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.

No one can make the album they made 10 years ago with a straight face. There are two reasons: one is you change as a person. To be a true artist, I have to be...

I tended to lean towards the guys who both sang and played, such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner… And at the other end of the spectrum, I had Eric Clapton in a rock...

Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.

When you’re old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.

I have a very down-to-earth father. My wife is an actress and famous herself is more down-to-earth than anyone I know.

Guitar playing isn’t really for everybody.

There may be people in my audience who may not agree with me on some particular issue – you know, say, as a gun owner, they may not agree with me, or, you know, someone...

If you were to hold me to a standard of, ‘What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?’ then my music’s gonna be ridiculous.

It’s a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music. They’re not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle...

I jetset around and play these songs and get to hang with some pretty amazing people, then I go home to a really great farm, though actually it’s a disaster area of a farm at...

My life would be very puzzling to most people if they had to follow me around for a day or two.

I go to eat dinner with my folks when I’m home. I think that’s the trick.

It just gets easier in that you become more you in the process.

With my guys and with the way that we live out there, we work out a lot and try to eat right, but we try to basically keep it our own rhythm and our own...

Anytime you do something from the heart, people just know it.

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren’t real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.

You look out there and there’s people that, their day is changed because of your contribution to it.

I imagine there’s a market for total depression. I grew up on George Jones and that really dark stuff.

Date night is important, even if it’s going to Schlotzsky’s.

As a guitar player, it’s harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

I’m sure there are a few things in my CD collection that might surprise people. I like classical music, the blues, and I’m a big fan of alternative rock.

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

I like to look at the songs like they’re little movies.

I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?

I have a to-do list and I have a farm I care for, and things I like to do for fun – going to movies and all that stuff. It’s a painfully normal life!

My dad was president of the volunteer fire department, which was within walking distance to our house. I spent several days of each week there with him – any time the whistle blew, he went....

I don’t stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.